Bay Area briefs

TV CAMERAMAN PUNCHED, ROBBED OF CAMERA IN OAKLAND: OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A TV news cameraman is back at work after a group of young men punched him and stole his camera while he was on assignment on a busy Oakland, Calif., street.

Wednesday's attack occurred as KPIX-TV cameraman Gregg Welk and reporter Anne Mackovec were wrapping up an election story outside Oakland Technical High School for the station's noon newscast.

Station spokeswoman Akilah Bolden-Monifa says Welk was confronted by a group of young men who hit him and ran off with his camera to a car.

Bolden-Monifa says Welk sought medical treatment on his own and was back at work on Thursday. Mackovec was not injured.

It was the latest in a series of attacks involving journalists in Oakland within the past year, including one involving a KGO-TV cameraman while covering a murder near the Occupy Oakland encampment.

BURNED REFINERY USING CORROSION-RESISTANT PIPES: RICHMOND (AP) — Chevron Corp. says it will use corrosion-resistant pipes at the San Francisco Bay area fuel refinery damaged in an August fire.

The petroleum giant says in a letter released on Wednesday that thinning and corrosion in refinery pipes apparently caused the blaze in its crude unit No. 4.

The Richmond refinery has been operating at about 60 percent capacity since the fire.

The Contra Costa Times says Chevron will replace pipes with chrome alloy to prevent corrosion.

Refinery general manager Nigel Hearne's letter to Richmond and Bay Area Air Quality Management District officials says Chevron hopes to complete repairs and restart unit No. 4 early next year.

BERKELEY SIT-LIE BAN SUPPORTERS NOT CONCEDING: BERKELEY (AP) — Supporters of a Berkeley measure that would ban sitting and lying on streets and sidewalks are not ready to concede defeat.

According to the Alameda County Registrar of Voters, Measure S was trailing as of Thursday morning 51.4 percent to 48.6 percent. Officials, however, were still going through provisional and vote-by-mail ballots from across the county.

John Caner, a lead organizer of the "Yes on S" campaign, told the Oakland Tribune that thousands of votes remained to be counted.

Measure S was trailing by about a thousand votes.

It would make it a crime to sit or lie on sidewalks from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. in commercial areas of Berkeley.

Supporters say it would help businesses whose storefronts are often blocked by groups camping out.

Opponents characterize the proposal as Draconian.

SF POLICE PROBE DEATH OF GIANTS FAN: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco police are investigating the death of a Giants fan who was seriously injured during the World Series victory celebration.

Officer Gordon Shyy says 37-year-old Sean Moffitt died of head trauma at San Francisco General Hospital on Oct. 30, two days after he was hurt during street celebrations in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood.

Police say Moffitt's death is considered suspicious and police are trying to determine how he died.

Shyy says after the celebration, Moffitt told his roommate he had been assaulted by four men with a metal pipe, but investigators weren't able to interview Moffitt and no one reported an assault to police.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that investigators are looking for possible witnesses and surveillance-video footage that may show what happened.